apr2499

I recently gave my old beat up Lynx I a face lift! I found someone with a broken Lynx on eBay and took the front cover and put on one of my Lynx I's with a McWill screen. So now both of my Lynx's look as good as I they did when I bought my first one in 1989! With the McWill screen mod, they actually look better than new! I took some pictures of both of the Lynx's with Xenophobe playing and connected together in 2 player mode with the ComLynx cable! Enjoy! Also it sounds like there is some interest in how to do the 5 Volt mod for the Lynx I, so I will try to get a how-to guide out there pretty soon!

I plan to put together a How-to for the Lynx I mod, but so far life has gotten in the way. I've done two of these mods and have learned a thing or two in the process. First of all, don't even attempt this if you are not good with a soldering iron. I consider myself a pro at soldering, but this was challenging. I just finished giving my "Ugly" Lynx I a face lift (e.g. new front cover) and will post some pictures tomorrow showing two ComLynx'ed together playing Xenophone. I'd also recommend you do the 5 Volt mod at some point as the Lynx power system is a bit of a ticking time bomb. If the voltage regulator goes bad, it will send 9 volts and fry many internal components as well as your beautiful new screen. I plan to document that process as well. Oh well, the best laid plans of mice and men! In the meantime, if you or anyone else has questions about installing the screen, or how to do the 5 Volt Mod, just PM me. I documented via pictures what I did to complete both of these. I'll help as much as I can! I've had the Lynx I screen mod for several months now for both of my Atari Lynx I's and love it! It is how the Lynx should be from the beginning (had they had the technology back then).

I just finished upgrading my second Atari Lynx model 1. She may be a bit beat up on the outside, but she's beautiful on the inside thanks to McWill's screen mod! Here are some pictures I took with this screen mod as well as some pictures with the two McWill Modded Lynx's together with a ComLynx cable in two player mode of War Birds! Again I want to say "Well Done" to McWill for this screen mod! My Lynx's have never looked better! I also want to reiterate that this is not an easy mod to do for the Lynx 1. It is quite stressful and takes skill to solder the wires to pins 14, 16, 18, 31, 36, 39, 41 and 58. Also make sure you have some good really thin solder, and a soldering gun with a really thin tip. Also I would recommend taking a VGA cable and cutting it open an using those wires for the mod as they are really small thin wires. If you are not really skilled with a soldering iron, I'd highly recommend sending this off to McWill to have him do the mod for you. Whatever price you pay him to do the mod for you is cheaper than ruining your Lynx! These pictures really don't do it justice! The screen looks even better in person! Stun Runner on the VGA monitor in Scanline mode!

GadgetUK, I took the luchs3d.lnx file, ran it through your ultility, and it still does not work on a Lynx 1 using the Mateos flash cart. I even used the remove header check box, and the 128kb -> 256Kb (BLL/Mateos) option. The problem is that the file size is 184Kb. Outside of padding the end of the file (which doesn't work), how can we get this or other homebrew roms to work on the real lynx hardware? I just got the McWill screen mod and am playing this thing all of the time! I was able to get your port of Alien to work, but it is already the correct file size. Any help you can provide would be appreciated!

So exactly how do you get this to play on an actual Lynx? I have the Mateos flashcart and eeprom carts. Generally speaking, the file size has to be exactly 128kb, 256kb, or 512kb to work on the real hardware. Are you padding the file with zero's to get this to work on a lynx? if so, how are you doing this? I really want to give this game (and other homebrews) a try. Thanks!

Radiokid, I took a little bit of a different approach to batteries for the Nomad. I modified the external battery pack to take AA batteries. It works great!

Trew, I tried cleaning all of the contacts. Unfortunately the dpad is build into the lynx mainboard. So I'm pretty much out of luck.

I beginning to thing there is some sort of hardware failure. I have looked over this lynx motherboard many times and I don't see anything obvious. I even took the soldering iron and put it across the chips again just in case there are some old solder joint that were breaking a part. The only thing i can think of would be to take a knife and cut the lead on board that goes to the chip and solder a wire there instead.

Thank you 7800fan for the reply. Call me a newbie, but I'm looking at that schematic and having trouble making heads or tails of it. Where is the controller panel and what is a Suzy chip? I really not an idiot, just not familiar with the Lynx lingo yet!

I have a Lynx model 1 that has started acting strangely. The right D-Pad button starts to press at random times. I even took off the D-pad magnets or contacts (whatever you call them) so that you just see the lynx i motherboard, and the right button still presses down. This is really easy to see in Klax as it will change difficulty from Easy to hard without me pressing anything. I have not done the 5 Volt mod yet but the voltage to the screen is at 4.97 volts. None of the capacitors look swollen. Do you have any idea what this could be? I just put in the McWill screen and really love this thing. Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated!

I just did the Screen mod for my Lynx model I and LOVE IT! The screen is great! It is bright and clear! The VGA output is great too! I'll be honest though, If you don't have some serious soldering skills, you are far better off sending your unit off to McWill to do the mod for you! I've been doing electronics repair my whole life but still found this mod challenging! If you do undertake this yourself and have a Lynx model I, I advise you to take a vga cable, cut it open, and use the wires for this project. VGA cables have very thin wires and you will need thin to solder the wires on pins 14, 16, 18, 31, 36, 39, 41 and 58. It also would not hurt to have some solder braid and a solder sucker too. As far as the price is concerned, anything great costs a lot! It takes time and skill to develop these things. He should be rewarded for his efforts! You don't do a mod project like this cheaply. It is an expensive undertaking, but worth it. In the end you have something very special! Hats off to McWill for such an amazing mod! Below are some pictures I took. The pictures really don't to it justice though. It looks even better in person. I also have a video that I took. You can view it here: http://vid1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee409/apr2499/Video%20May%2003%207%2020%2002%20PM_zpsoimy530k.mp4